Tripura law minister Ratan Lal Nath on Friday termed the erstwhile Left Front regime as a “black chapter” in the state’s history.

Nath was reacting to CPM state secretary Gautam Das’s recent statement that March 3, 2018, the day the BJP won the Assembly polls, was a “black day”.

Rather, Nath said, the people of the state ended the 25-year misrule on March 3, 2018.

“The Opposition CPM has insulted the mandate of the people, who voted the BJP-IPFT to power. The people of the state were suffering under the Left Front regime. They voted us to power so that they may live freely and breathe peacefully. They are now free from Left terror,” Nath told reporters here. He demanded an apology from Das for his remark as it “disrespected the people of the state and their constitutional rights”.

Nath said going by the data on crimes that took place during the Left Front regime, the BJP-IPFT rule was the end of a “black chapter” in Tripura.

Quoting statistics, he said 1,140 cases of dacoity were reported from 1993 to 2017 during the Left Front government. “The highest number, 206, was reported in the first year of the Left Front government in 1993 while around 10 cases have been reported since the formation of the BJP-IPFT government in 2018,” he added.

During 1993-2017, 4,817 murders were reported, of which the highest number, 306, was recorded in 2000, while 144 murders were reported in 2018, he said.

Nath claimed that rape cases had drastically reduced in the state after the BJP-IPFT government came to power. He said 3,757 rapes cases were reported from 1993 to 2017 with the highest number, 239, being reported in 2014. In 2018, 166 rape cases were reported and 187 cases in 2019, he said.

Nath said 802 political murders took place in the state during the Left Front regime while not a single murder has been reported in the state after the BJP-IPFT government was formed.

“Gautam Das has no right to disrespect the people of the state. He must publicly apologise for his statement,” Nath said.